Healium AR blends storytelling, neuroscience and game design so users can harness their feelings to power virtual worlds and find a sense of calm.

At Oculus Connect 6, Facebook unveiled a powerful new addition to the Oculus Quest: Hand-tracking. Using the cameras already built into the Quest, the software is able to sense and recreate your hands and individual finger movement in VR. Is it too good to be true?

Coming via software update in November

Poor Barry Thompson is about to get fired, and you're the unfortunate one shouldered with lowering the ax. You might not feel sorry for Barry given he's virtual. But the idea is that firing him in VR will help prepare you if you ever need to terminate someone who isn't made of pixels.

A recent study found virtual reality experiences were better at easing pain than watching televised nature scenes. Immersive distraction seems key to the success, scientists say.

Virtual reality headsets, aimed at reducing the pain of women in labour, are being trialled.

Three years ago, I duct-taped a laser tracker to the top of my eminently patient wife’s painting easel. On a converted baker’s cart in the corner, I set up a glowing green PC. Then I ran half a dozen cables between the PC and a HTC Vive VR headset. This was the price of the best VR experience on the market: To be able to actually walk around and wave my hands in physical space, I had to wrap my dining room in wires.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the best-selling consumer electronics products aren’t necessarily a company’s latest or highest-end products; mass-market customers often gravitate instead towards affordable models with good enough performance. That’s the reason console makers keep last-generation models around after launching superior sequels: as long as there’s a promise of at least token continued support, “old” hardware is still viable.

Nintendo Labo VR, the cardboard accessory kit for the Switch, is up against a lot of expectations as the company’s official foray into virtual reality. It’s the fourth installment of the Labo series, which first launched one year ago to mixed reviews. Parents and schools lauded its tactile building experience and programming features as creative educational tools for kids, while some critics dismissed it as a novelty item that lost its fun after the first few plays.

Facebook said it accidentally hid bizarre and “inappropriate” messages inside “tens of thousands” of virtual-reality controllers, including “Big Brother is Watching” and “The Masons Were Here.” Nate Mitchell, the cofounder of Oculus, the Facebook-owned VR company, said on Twitter on Friday that the company inadvertently printed some unusual messages in its Touch controllers, handheld devices for playing games and navigating VR environments.

It's been a few years since the PlayStation VR for the PS4 and PS4 Pro launched onto the virtual reality scene, bringing with it an excellent virtual reality headset experience for console gamers. As of writing this article, it's still one of the best-selling virtual reality headsets on the market, which makes sense considering several of the others need high-end computers to get up-and-running such as the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

Boneworks from Stress Level Zero feels like the first game of PC VR’s second generation. The small team based in Los Angeles previously developed Duck Season and Hover Junkers. In Boneworks, they are applying years of refinement to physics, locomotion and object handling systems. You can feel the effort every second inside their virtual world. A recent demo of Boneworks from Stress Level Zero co-founder Brandon Laastch shows interactions tuned to a degree I’ve never seen before. First I held, loaded and fired a one-handed pistol. I dropped the gun, grabbed a bigger one, racked it with my other hand and started firing.

Combining cognitive-behavioral therapy with virtual reality technology could help people suffering from social anxiety disorder, according to preliminary research published in the journal Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy. “I am interested in the topic of virtual reality (VR) based therapies as the open a lot of new possibilities. VR surroundings are accessible, interactive and customizable to fit the needs of a patient,” explained Chris N. W. Geraets, a PhD student at the University of Groningen and corresponding author of the study.

Unexpectedly on a Friday night, Valve has surprise launched a teaser site featuring a brand-new virtual reality headset, called the Valve Index, that appears to be a device of its own making and not one in partnership with its longtime VR partner HTC. The teaser site spotted by Ars Technica offers no information other than that the Index’s supposed release date is May 2019.

Google is shutting down its Emmy Award-winning VR film division, Spotlight Stories, after six years of building out content, Variety reports. We’ve reached out to Google for confirmation. Update: A Google spokesperson responded to TechCrunch with a statement confirming the shutdown.

Finnish start-up Varjo launched its first virtual reality (VR) headset on Tuesday in a bid to capture the growing industrial market for the technology, despite slow pick-up among consumers. The $5,995 headset will be sold directly to businesses in industries like architecture, engineering and construction. Varjo has already collaborated with companies including Airbus, Audi and Volkswagen.

NVIDIA co-founder & CEO Jensen Huang took the stage today at the company’s CES 2019 press conference, issuing a strong claim that four million PC VR headsets have been sold to date. The two largest PC VR headset manufacturers, Oculus and HTC, have been cagey on providing sales numbers, although GPU manufacturer Nvidia might have a pretty good line on how many headsets have been sold since consumer PC VR came to market in early 2016.

A specialized virtual reality treatment may be able to reduce the frequency and intensity of nightmares, according to a pilot study published in the journal Dreaming. “Current treatments for nightmares required too much time or taking a drug that essentially knocked you out for awhile, so we needed a treatment that was short, non-toxic and effective,” said study author Patrick McNamara of the Boston University School of Medicine.

Since launch, PS VR has propelled us into fantastical worlds and experiences with unparalleled immersion. And from today you can get more of those experiences for less with the PS VR Mega Pack*. This hardware bundle includes a PS VR headset, PS Camera and voucher codes** for five acclaimed PS VR games, including hit platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission, the blisteringly-fast WipEout Omega Collection, open-world adventure The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, hellish shooter Doom VFR, and PlayStation VR Worlds.

Today, we’re excited to announce the new PlayStation VR Borderlands 2 VR and Beat Saber Bundle that will give you access to two action-packed VR games. Borderlands 2 VR is the latest blockbuster experience to come to the immersive platform, bringing the iconic shooting-looting world of Pandora to life like never before. Virtually become a treasure-seeking Vault Hunter facing off against the galaxy’s most charming psychopathic dictator — Handsome Jack — with nothing but your wits and your arsenal of 87 bazillion guns.